CNN’s Chris Cillizza Sounds Alarm About Bernie Sanders’ Health: ‘He Had a Heart Attack on the Campaign Trail!’

CNN politics reporter and editor-at-large Chris Cillizza sounded the alarm about the health of Democratic presidential candidate Bernie Sanders (I-VT) on Wednesday, exclaiming “He had a heart attack on the campaign trail in the fall!”

On Wednesday’s edition of CNN’s New Day — moments after Sanders National Press Secretary Briahna Joy Gray made her later-retracted claim that former New York City Mayor Mike Bloomberg has had multiple heart attacks — anchor John Berman spoke to a panel that included Cillizza, and disputed her claim.

“We’re checking on this, I don’t think that’s right,” Berman said.

Cillizza addressed another of Gray’s claims first, telling Berman, “It’s not a smear campaign to ask about detailed health records from a 78-year-old man who would be the oldest president in American history to be elected to a first term, and who had a heart attack in the fall.”

“My search on Google News and everything else I can search while sitting here suggests that Michael Bloomberg has an irregular heartbeat for which he has been diagnosed in the past, but at least my initial searches, now maybe I’m wrong, maybe we’ll turn up other stuff,” he added.

“We’re looking too,” co-anchor Alisyn Camerota said.

Gray has since retracted her claim, but more on that later.

Cillizza then returned the subject to Sanders’ health, saying “oldest person to ever be elected if he wins, and he had a heart attack on the campaign trail in the fall!”

“I have seen, this is not a partisan thing, I have seen critics from the left and the right of Sanders in the last 24 hours since he answered that question at our town hall, basically said I’m not going to give up anymore medical records, I’ve seen critics emerging on both sides,” Cillizza said, adding “Look, this is the treatment you get when you are the frontrunner, when you are the most likely person to be the Democratic nominee for president, against Donald Trump. And I think it’s still an open question.”

“It’s not a place Bernie Sanders has ever been before. He’s always been the guy charging at the windmill. He’s not the dog who caught the car. Well now he is, at least for the moment in the rest, and we’ll see how he handles it. Early indications are not great,” Cillizza added.

“What does that mean?” Camerota asked.

“I just think when you have someone who is a national press person saying it’s a smear campaign to ask about the medical records of a man who is 78 years old and had a heart attack 3 months ago, that’s not a smear campaign,” Cillizza said, adding “I’ve seen smear campaigns in politics, that ain’t one.”

Just for clarity’s sake, here are some facts. Sanders critics often downplay the medical information that was released as “three doctors’ notes,” but the Sanders campaign is correct, the letters that Sanders released are roughly equivalent to the medical summaries that other campaigns have released. No candidate released “complete medical records” — but Sanders did promise that was what he would do when public concern over his health was at its zenith.

And while Gray has retracted her claim that Bloomberg has had “heart attacks,” it is worth noting what we do know about Bloomberg’s heart and how we know it. Buried in a fawning 2007 Newsweek profile — literally in parentheses — was this tidbit from an unnamed associate who was trying to paint a rosy picture of Bloomberg’s health:

 (Bloomberg had two coronary stents put in before he became mayor; an associate, who didn’t want to be named discussing Bloomberg’s medical status, says his health is excellent.)

The same associate described the event to The New York Times by saying Bloomberg underwent the procedure after “Mr. Bloomberg complained of discomfort and tiredness,” and Bloomberg spokesman Stu Loeser confirmed the surgery — which had gone undisclosed for seven years — to CBS News, while another unnamed Bloomberg associate explained the failure to disclose:

He was not yet a declared mayoral candidate for the 2001 campaign when he underwent the procedure. Loeser said Bloomberg had the operation because he had been experiencing fatigue and mild discomfort in his chest, and was up and about the next day.

Bloomberg’s father had rheumatic fever as a child, which weakened his heart. He died when Bloomberg was in college.

Bloomberg would have revealed the surgery during his first campaign but was never asked, and he has not brought it up since then because he is private about his health, according to a person close to the mayor and familiar with his health.

Those descriptions aren’t all that dissimilar to the one the Sanders campaign gave when their candidate was hospitalized:

During a campaign event yesterday evening, Sen. Sanders experienced some chest discomfort. Following medical evaluation and testing he was found to have a blockage in one artery and two stents were successfully inserted.

Two days later, Sanders revealed he’d had a heart attack.

Watch the clip above via CNN.